Building Fire Safety Legislation for Queensland
The Department of Emergency Services (DES) has completed a review of the Building Fire Safety Regulation 1991.
A Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) and a consultation draft of the proposed replacement regulation were prepared and made available for public comment in June and July 2007.
Analysis of the submissions received identified a range of issues that required further consideration and subsequent informal consultation with some key stakeholders occurred throughout the remainder of 2007.
The main issues that were further consulted and considered were:
- The costs, benefits and alternative options in relation to the proposed requirement that an occupier ensure that an appropriate number of persons in high occupancy buildings possess a current fire safety qualification
- How to best ensure that relevant alternative solution conditions are made know to, and implemented by, the occupier of a building;
- Whether the obligation base, where the majority of fire safety obligations are reposed on the occupier, is too narrow; and
- Whether the reporting requirements in relation to “significant critical defects” will work in practice, and whether there are more workable alternatives to ensuring appropriate building fire safety information is provided to the fire service.
Upon consideration of the above issues, particularly with regard to cost and compliance impacts, and following further consultation with key stakeholders, changes have been made to some of the proposals in the consultation draft of the regulation.
It is proposed now that businesses with 30 or more employees and those in high occupancy buildings will be required to have at least one Fire Safety Advisor (FSA) appointed and trained. The intent of this change is that fewer people will be required to possess a fire safety qualification, but those that do will be trained in a much more comprehensive way and will acquire a far deeper knowledge of building fire safety. The FSA must have a fire safety qualification provided by an RTO and will be the only person that has to receive training. This does not, however, limit the ability of an occupier to appoint more than one fire safety advisor.
Further there will be a requirement for the owner or body corporate (whatever the entity responsible for the whole building) to ensure that evacuation arrangements for the whole building are integrated and that the evacuation plan is practiced on an annual basis.
The proposed requirement to notify the commissioner of critical defects in fire safety installations was much discussed by stakeholders. It was considered that such a requirement would create an administrative reporting burden for occupiers not sufficiently outweighed by the benefits and therefore this obligation has been removed. However, the obligation for contractors to notify occupiers of defects has been retained.
There will be no changes to the proposed requirement that relevant approval documents be obtained and kept with the fire and evacuation plan.
The remade regulation is to commence in mid-2008, with a transitional period of 12 months to allow the community to comply with new obligations. All stakeholders involved in the consultation during the review will be notified of further developments and upon promulgation of the remade regulation.
For further information you may contact the Senior Project Officer, Legislative Review Project on 3109 5081 or email to fireris@emergency.qld.gov.au.
Background
The regulation is subordinate legislation to the Fire and Rescue Service Act 1990 and the Building Act 1975 and the review represents the second phase of an overall review of fire safety arrangements in Queensland. The first stage of the review was conducted in 2005 and 2006 and resulted in amendments to the Fire and Rescue Service Act 1990, the most significant of which was the introduction of compulsory smoke alarms in domestic premises.
The primary purpose of the regulation is to:
- Ensure that persons can evacuate from buildings safely in the event of a fire;
- Ensure that fire safety features and equipment in buildings continue to perform to the same standard and to provide the same level of safety as originally intended; and
- Prescribe fees to be paid for the assessment and inspection of special fire services and the assessment of fire engineering design briefs.
Consultation draft of the regulation
Summary of post consultation changes
Last updated 12 March 2008
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